Daily Comment on News and Issues of Interest to Michigan Lawyers

July 2014

07/30/2014

The Board of Law Examiners is aware that some applicants are experiencing technical difficulties uploading their essay answers to ExamSoft. Accordingly, the Board has extended the deadline for uploading to 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday July 30th.

The Board will continue to monitor this situation very closely. Additional steps will be taken as necessary to ensure that all applicants have sufficient time to upload their answers after the technical issue is resolved.

07/23/2014

Join the State Bar of Michigan to celebrate the growing diversity in the legal profession at our Celebrating Diversity Reception, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 18 at H.O.M.E. in the B.O.B. in Grand Rapids.

Join the State Bar of Michigan and Institute for Continuing Legal Education September 18 and 19 in Grand Rapids for this year's Annual Meeting and Solo & Small Firm Institute. Scholarships are still available for slots at the Solo & Small Firm Institute. For more information about scholarships, contact Stephanie Fisher via snail mail at 1020 Greene St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1444.

07/18/2014

David K. Page, a partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, passed away on July 1 at the age of 80.

Page's legal practice focused on corporate transactions, including corporate governance, financing, acquisitions, sales and mergers, public offerings and private placements. He was an active and committed community leader and was the chairman of the board of Meadowbrook Insurance Group, Inc., a company with nearly $3 billion in assets based in Southfield, Michigan.

His personal list of volunteer work with charitable organizations is extensive. Along with leadership roles at many area nonprofit organizations, he was the chair of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation board of trustees, the vice chair of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and a trustee or director on the boards of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the Detroit Zoological Society, City Year Detroit and both The Jewish Fund and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (previously serving as president of each).

He earned an LL.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College. In addition, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Page is survived by his wife, Andrea, children, Mark, Jason and Sarah, and grandchildren.

07/17/2014

Members of the State Bar of Michigan Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, in partnership with members of the SBM Elder Law and Disability Rights Section and SBM Probate and Estate Planning Section, will visit senior centers in 51 Michigan counties to present a one-hour seminar to inform and empower senior citizens about estate planning decisions. Committee and section members will begin presenting the seminar on Wednesday, Aug. 6, and will make a few additional presentations on other dates ranging from early August through October. Local senior centers have set the times and dates of each presentation of the seminar, with some senior centers hosting the seminar multiple times. View the complete list of seminar times, dates and places.

“A Living Trust Education Initiative: Who Should You Trust? Avoiding Estate Planning Mistakes,” will provide senior citizens, including veterans applying for benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, with essential estate planning information and caution them about deceptive sales practices that could potentially jeopardize their economic stability. It will include a short presentation by licensed Michigan attorneys and a dynamic question and answer period to allow program participants to obtain accurate information about estate planning matters. Seminar participants will receive a folder containing estate planning information and other materials to help them avoid estate planning mistakes and becoming victimized by persons selling annuities for their own economic gain.

The survey is conducted every three years and the results are used daily throughout the state in courtrooms, law firms and by lawyers in all occupational areas. As referenced by the Michigan Supreme Court in Smith v. Khouri, it is the primary resource used by trial courts to determine attorney fees. It provides the benchmark for more than 50 specific fields of practice by geographic location.

Survey results also contain data about salaries, benefits, hours worked and job satisfaction for attorneys in non-private practice occupations, such as those working as in-house counsel, in government service, non-profit organizations, academia, legal services and more.

07/11/2014

The Michigan Board of Law Examiners announced that they have created a new and improved scoring system for the Michigan Bar Exam that they will begin to utilize while scoring the July 29 exam.

The BLE says they expect the new scoring system to more accurately measure test takers' competence by ensuring that essay test scores across administrations reflect the same skill level and reflect differences in the difficulty between the multiple choice and essay portions of the exam. The Michigan Bar Exam is administrated each February and July, and has two parts: a 200-question multiple choice multistate bar exam portion and a 15-question Michigan law-based essay portion.

The Michigan BLE is a separate entity from the State Bar of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan legislature and is overseen by the Michigan Supreme Court. Board members, including Gerald Marcinkoski, Hon. Christopher M. Murray, Eric J. Pelton, Hon. Joseph J. Farah and Hon. Donna Robinson Milhouse, are nominated by the Michigan Supreme Court and then appointed by Governor Rick Snyder to serve for five-year terms.

07/09/2014

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled four to three in People v Carp, People v Davis and People v Eliason that those offenders sentenced as juveniles to life without the possibility for parole prior to the Supreme Court of the United States decision in Miller v Alabama will not be eligible for new sentencing hearings.

Justice Stephen Markman wrote for the majority that since the changes made by the Miller precedent were merely procedural, no sentencing hearings were required for those juveniles sentenced to life prior to Miller.

Justice Mary Beth Kelly wrote for the dissent, signed on to by Justices Bridget McCormack and Michael Cavanagh, that because Miller changed the variety of sentences available for the those juveniles sentenced to life prior to Miller, that the Miller precedent should apply retroactively.

07/08/2014

When Mr. L's minivan broke down and required expensive repairs, he was in danger of losing more than his method of transportation. He was also on the verge of becoming homeless.

Because he couldn't pay to have the van fixed, the repair shop declared it abandoned and the police impounded it and prepared to have it towed for scrap.

That's when Chris Bernard, an attorney at Bodman in Ann Arbor, stepped in to provide pro bono legal counsel to Mr. L. Find out how he helped Mr. L and worked with the city attorney to ensure nobody else ever faced the same problems Mr. L did.